>> guest: well, my first political involvement was in the civil rights movement, where i came along at a time when if you were young and idealistic and in the south, that was--you pretty much were drawn to that. c-span: but what got you interested in that? what--what kind of a--what was the home like? >> guest: my family is quite conservative. my father is, i would say, extremely conservative. i--it was--it--it--it... c-span: is he alive? >> guest: yes, he is. my mama, bless her heart, passed on. i sometimes think it may have been my mother's fault. my mother tried--she--she was certainly, i assure you without success, to drill good manners into my head. and in some ways i think that manners are just a formal expression of how you treat people. and in--the way black people were treated before the civil rights movement, it was clear to me, was very wrong. it was an easy call. c-span: were they political conservatives, ideological conservatives, your parents? >> guest: yeah. both republicans, lifelong. c-span: you write a column about your mom. it's the last thing in the book, i think. >